Solar Garden Roof Study and ROI

An extensive study for CFOs about the fully integrated Photovoltaic and Green Roof solutions is finally available in English. The study includes the advantages of the system and ROI calculations.

Solar Garden Roof Study and ROI

Green Roof Service LLC / Green Roof Technology has now an extensive study about an advanced fully integrated Photovoltaic and Green Roof solution available in English. The study demonstrates that going green with a smart combination of living plants and PV panels can be a very rewarding investment and considered as the most beneficial environmental solution on large scale commercial, Schools and University projects.

Successful implemented on European projects over more than 5 years, the Solar Garden Roof with the Sun-Root module can now catch-up in North America. "I am often wondering, why the American market is hesitating in regards of living green innovation," says Jörg Breuning, "there are tremendous savings and paybacks available, more than in any other country in the world."

It is estimated that Washington, DC alone has a potential of over 2 Million square feet of green roofs combined with PV in the next 24 month. This could reduce the stromwater run-off by over 25 Million Gallons per year and produce over 26 Megawatt hours of electricity in only 12 month. Most of these smart rooftop solutions would actually payback in less than 4 1/2 years and come with a 20-25 years output warranty.

A bare roof with exposed water proofing has no payback.

Some facts:
The integrated Solar Garden Roof system can significantly address complex urban environmental issues like energy conservation, stormwater management, and the heat island effect with myriad benefits not offered by traditional solutions for urban environments:

▪ System offsets rising traditional energy costs through generation of alternative power
▪ Incentives and grants minimize initial investment
▪ SREC's and electricity savings create annual income
▪ Substantial and active cooling for Solar panels
▪ Increase in lifetime of Solar panels and inverters
▪ Reduction and/or elimination of stormwater fees
▪ Significant reduction in heat island effect
▪ Reduction in environmental impact
▪ Insulating vegetation layer extends the life of roof membrane / water proofing
▪ Efficient, earth-friendly, and durable design ensures easy upgrades, accessibility and flexibility
▪ Accurate calculable payback

Though there is an additional upfront expense for building an integrated system, vs. installing a bare roof or open roof, these costs can be substantially diminished or eliminated when combining green roof systems with advanced solar systems and applying the many financial incentives.
By embracing the future of this technology and its substantive benefits, consumers and corporations alike in both the private and public sectors will not only reap the financial rewards of living green but also reduce on a global scale the negative impact that dense and man-made structures have had on the environment.

Interested developer, architects and planners are welcome to visit two demonstrations projects - one in New York, Randal's Island and another one in the DC area at Prospect Solar.

The system will be also presented at Cities Alive in San Francisco next week. Contact: info@greenrooftechnology.com call 443-345-1578. Visit:www.greenrooftechnology.com